System and method for acquiring and integrating multi-source information for advanced analystics and visualization

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to a system and device for compartmentalizing data acquisition functions within various hardware and software components and web services. More specifically, the system comprises a number of data providers including web services configured to receive transaction parameters from a payment network gateway system. The gateway system routes payment requests to appropriate payment processors and further parses the payment request for parameters. An information request including the parameters is sent to a cataloging service, which selects one or more web services based on the information request and parameters. The cataloging service sends the parameters to the one or more web services, which retrieves information based on a parameter and returns the information to the gateway server. The gateway server processes the information with the original transaction data and stores the combined information in a database.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for augmenting transaction data, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a gateway server, a payment authorization request from a merchant system;   parsing, at the gateway server, the payment authorization request to obtain transaction data;   sending, by the gateway server, a subset of the transaction information to a first web service, wherein the first web service retrieves supporting data from a data source, the supporting data being retrieved based on its relation to a parameter selected from the subset and, wherein the supporting data is sent to the gateway server;   processing, by the gateway server, the supporting data to combine the transaction data with the supporting data; and   storing the combined data in a database system.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising sending, by the gateway server, a second subset of the transaction information to a second web service, wherein the second web service retrieves second supporting data from a second computing system, the second supporting data being retrieved based on its relation to a second parameter selected from the second subset and, wherein the second supporting data is sent to the gateway server. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising processing, by the gateway server, the second supporting data to combine the second supporting data with the transaction data and supporting data. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the gateway server is included in a payment network. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the gateway server is at least one of: a wallet gateway, a loyalty server, and a payment authorization server. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first web service is selected by a cataloging service. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the subset of the transaction information is sent to the first web service by a cataloging service. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the supporting data is received over at least one of: a public network and a private network. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the parameters are selected from the subset by at least one of: the first web service and a cataloging service. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first web service has permissions to access data on a secure system. 
     
     
         11 . A computer system for augmenting consumer related information, the system comprising:
 a gateway server for receiving a payment authorization request from a merchant system;   a gateway server parser for parsing the payment authorization request to obtain transaction data;   a first web service for receiving a subset of the transaction information from the gateway server, wherein the first web service retrieves supporting data from a computing system, the supporting data being retrieved based on its relation to a parameter selected from the subset and, wherein the supporting data is sent to the gateway server;   a gateway server reporting module for processing the supporting data to combine the transaction data with the supporting data; and   a database system for storing the combined data from the gateway server.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising the gateway server sending a second subset of the transaction information to a second web service, wherein the second web service retrieves second supporting data from a second computing system, the second supporting data being retrieved based on its relation to a second parameter selected from the second subset and, wherein the second supporting data is sent to the gateway server. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising the gateway server processing the second supporting data to combine the second supporting data with the transaction data and supporting data. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the gateway server resides on a payment network and is at least one of: a wallet gateway, a loyalty server, and a payment authorization system. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the combined data does not include any information that can be used to identify an individual consumer.